“In 1986 a dear friend living in Los Angeles was diagnosed with HIV.

…As Los Angeles had a superior infrastructure to deal with HIV/AIDS, and as my friend was by then, a committed member of several AIDS organizations, she did not want to return to her home and native Montreal, nor did her family want to move to Los Angeles – so I did. I packed up my home in 1993 and moved to Los Angeles to take care of her.

I administered IV infusions of nuclear medicine three to four times a day. I sorted her myriad pills, read up on all the alternative medicines, volunteered at ‘Women’s Being Alive’ became good friends with her friends, most of whom were in the AIDS community.

When the time came for me to give the directive to pull life support, it had been 14 months, the most difficult months of my life. It took me a good long while to get back into life.

…It’s now been over a decade. I saw firsthand what happens to people, good people, who are stricken with AIDS and I see how hard people are working on their behalf. I have experience, knowledge and a personal interest in doing what I can to help make sure people don’t have to suffer like my friend did, or go through what I did in taking care of her.”

-Susan Daley, member of The ONE Campaign, Burlington, Ontario

Check back to the ONE blog for more ONE members’ stories. And if you haven’t already, send in your story